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There's nothing more debilitating to a writer's concentration than stumbling onto (and over) a cache of reviews trashing what you did last time out. But you know what? I respect reviewers. I respect that they care enough to write a review at all, whether it's good or bad or indifferent.

Having said that, for those of you who want to be writers, or are writers, and have expectations of always getting great reviews ... well, I don't know of anyone who had that experience. Someone always hates your work. That doesn't mean they hate YOU ... they don't know YOU, and you are not what you produce as work. So remember first that a bad review is not a personal attack upon you. (Except sometimes when it is, but that's luckily a rare occurrence.)

I think that much can be learned from bad reviews, and I like to pick a few and analyze them and see what I can glean to make the next book better.

So ... WORKING STIFF, my first Revivalist novel, has been the lowest reviewed on Amazon of anything that I've ever done (I think). It has a number of 1-star reviews, in fact. Let's roll tape, and see what we can learn.


GOD AWFUL

Okay, the first one has the title of "GOD AWFUL", which doesn't bode well, does it? But we shall persevere. Quoting:

"I like some of her other novels, particularly the Djinn and Weather Warden series. I typically don't ever stop reading a book, but I did about a third of way through this one. Why? I wasn't able to suspend ENOUGH disbelief to plug my way through. A company develops a serum that brings back the dead. Really? Okay. But the person breathes and acts 100% normal, but they need a shot every day...c'mon, a shot that restores 100% of every body action but can't replicate itself and needs to be re-done every 24 hours. Okay, I bought that....but then the shot contains a backdoor effect where a whispered key word will make the persons subservient. Wow. Really. Not to mention that the heroine is only "alive" or restored because they need to find the culprit who is stealing their product. Another wow. If a company actually had that product, you'd think the least of their problems would be proprietary theft of product. I mean, market that crap, get your patent, and fight the battle later....no, instead it's a big secret."

Hmmm. You know, I can't really fault that -- not everybody's going to stay with me on the concepts. It's science fiction. I don't begrudge that he balked at the leap. However, he ALSO says that he stopped reading 1/3 of the way through ... so he didn't get the rest of the story, which actually explains part of his objections.

"Moreover, the heroine takes her death matter of factly. Ah, Okay, I was dead but now I'm restored and feel the same physical and emotional effects as when I was alive. I sweat, I get panicky, I desire men, I have to eat....good lord, there's not even a bonus of extra zombie strength or being able to see ghosts. The heroine gets 14 days of serum to find the "bad" guy, but frankly, I stopped caring. Let her die again, she won't be missed. Rachel, please take all your notes for the next Revivalist and burn them. Don't resurreact this dead on arrival plot. Please, I beg you."

What I get from this is that the reader wanted more ... angst. Again, later in the book, Bryn DOES have that terrible angsty moment. She also does get some kind of bonus powers. However, what I truly get from this review is that he just didn't find Bryn's character interesting or compelling enough to read far enough-- certainly not compelling enough to make the leaps with me that I asked (and to be fair, they were HUGE leaps). But dude, you're not even willing to let me TRY to make the second book better? Harsh, but okay. Sadly, I don't have the choice ... as I have two more novels under this contract.

BUT. Bryn *is* going to get more interesting, ruthless, kick-ass, and (hopefully) involving in book 2. Promise.

RIGOR MORTIS

Quoting:
"This whole book was stiff. The characters bland. Joe and Patrick had promise but they were secondary characters. Pansy was vibrant and interesting but she was a third string player. The big problem was just a dull heroine. Bryn had the personality of a walking corpse. I also found that the chapters were way too long, they added to the feeling of not getting anywhere in this book. Unfortunately there was also no romance happening at all and just when you think something is going to develop Bryn gets beat up. More like a punch in the gut for the reader. The story line was ok, but took forever to get anywhere. There just wasn't anything to get invested in.

Working Stiff was working hard to bore. With a sad lead character, no romance, an extremely long drawn out setup, there was really nothing to interest me or hold my attention. This book was one great failed concept after another."

I actually really like this review, because it pinpoints what the first reviewer was trying to say ... that the main character wasn't there. I wasn't trying to write a snappy, comeback-ready heroine, so Bryn is very different than my usual stuff, and I get that people who were expecting that didn't get it. Will work on it. (Also: romance in book 2, which is why I didn't put it all in the first book.) And at least the reviewer liked the concepts, even if they failed.

NOT GOOD!

Quoting:
"I was shocked this book was by Rachel Caine. The same woman who breaks molecular bonds with scientific prose any chemist would applaud her for has written a completely implausible book. Her lead character Bryn is killed by her boss who is a funeral home owner who is selling a black market drug that revitalizes the dead."

(Removing spoiler sections)

I couldn't get past all the things a real investigator wouldn't do and therefore was unable to enjoy this book and I won't read any sequel to it. I also agree that the book is depressing. She is, after all, dead and has to receive daily shots to keep from decomposing--no future in that."

Hmmm. Yeah, I see her objections, and I actually agree. Writing a book where a character is literally controlled by those around her is hard; Bryn has little room for initiative in this book, and it bugged me as well in the writing of it, which is why book 2 will be a different situation altogether. Hey, I'll take the lovely praise in the beginning about my usual work, too. What I'm taking from this review is that I need to make the THEME more explicit in the next book, because all three of these reviews sort of missed the allegory ... which is about healthcare, and our dependence on it. So. I learned something.


So, what did I learn?

1. The plot, being pretty far out there into SF territory, isn't going to fly for all my readers. So I am limiting my market somewhat -- possibly gaining others from another quarter, but that's an unknown. I need to BRING IT in Book 2.

2. The main character needs work. I was trying to make Bryn less a superhero and more a real person struggling for survival, but she may not have worked as well as I'd hoped. She needs more. So, next book, she'll get more.

3. The theme isn't prominent enough to really resonate as I wanted. That's my fault, as a writer, for burying the lede a little too much.

There you go. One star reviews, and learning from them. And also: SERIOUSLY, thank you to those who wrote these
reviews. I am sorry I disappointed you with this book, and I'll strive, as always, to do better.

One more thing: PLEASE, if you disagree with these reviews, DO NOT go and harass the nice people who wrote them. The reviewers were honest, and honest is honorable. If you feel you want to counterpoint, feel free to post your own reviews, but don't go arguing with these guys. PLEASE.